Indifference
by Crimson Rider0
Summary: Based in the Sword Art Online universe but a new MC, Kirito just didn't make the cut... Rated T for a few concepts and language, could possibly change to M in the near future. Positive or Negative feedback is very helpful and appreciated.
1. Introduction

**Indifference**

"Welcome to the Rodeo" -Lil Skies

 _I don't own the Sword Art Online anime, manga, or anything else related to SAO._

 _I hope y'all e_ _njoy the story! :)_

* * *

deeper...deeper... _deeper_

This cavern by _far_ the deepest he'd ever seen.

Maybe he was onto something.

But, then again, maybe not.

The inhabitants of this cave didn't bother him.

 _spiders_

He was neither partial to them, nor hated them really.

He was indifferent.

As he was to most things nowadays.

It wasn't always like that... but _that_ is a story for another time.

* * *

An entire month.

That's how long it had taken anybody to find the first boss, on floor one.

It had confused her.

The single lone name displayed on the leaderboard, that is.

 _Hyde_

He had become a legend ever since his name found it's way up on the leaderboards, for thousands to see.

He had been the first one to defeat a floor boss in this _game_.

And he had managed to do it. All. By. Himself.

All of them. Small parties assured of their victory due to the fact that a single man was able to take down the behemoth.

They had all been wrong and had died for their mistake.

It was common knowledge at this point.

Only the largest of raid groups were able to defeat the boss on floor 1 and claim its spoils.

Aargh, her head hurt just thinking about it.

Why didn't he just explain too everyone the magnitude of the challenge?

She guessed she would only get an answer when she managed to find and ask him herself.

This man intrigued her.

So she decided she had had enough.

Enough sitting around, wasting away her starting cash, and rotting in this God forsaken place.

She wanted **out**.

So she would have to find a way out.


	2. Big Boss Boi

"We've called this assembly here today to discuss the boss of this floor."

That's why he was here. Why he bothered showing up to this gathering.

"We've managed to discover the location of said boss."

Even though it was the whole point of this meeting, a majority of the people seemed noticeably surprised.

It had only taken two weeks after the first floor's boss had been defeated to discover the second.

That is why Hyde bothered to sit in the upper stands of this place.

The player known as Hyde sat in the stands with a cloak as black as night with streaks of red.

He didn't know why he bothered with the hood. Nobody actually knew what the infamous _Hyde_ even looked like.

And as long as he kept his settings kept to private, and his friends list wiped clean, it would stay that way.

The name of the player and their color is displayed above their avatar, along with their health and mana if they so wish it.

He decided to stay discrete and hide everything he could, only the color above his head remained.

The colors given are red, yellow, or green.

The pointed colored cursor above your avatar could not be hidden.

If the cursor was green, you had either acted out in self defense and not killed or you hadn't done anything at all.

Yellow meant you attacked another player, but either they survived, or you didn't deliver the final blow.

Red meant you had _killed_ another human being. Whether in self defense, or intentionally, you were branded with the red cursor.

The color of your cursor turned back to green given three days time, unless another malicious act was repeated.

"I don't want no beta testers helping us either!" a young dwarfish man shot out, voice laced with venom.

'What is this moron rambling on about?'

"Silence!" a blue Templar shouted from the center.

That was the man who had called this meeting. He was simply known as lance, and apparently wasn't reckless enough to take on this floor's boss with just his party.

Smart.

While the assembled group began arguing about beta testers and how they'd afflicted the community, Hyde's patience began to wear thin.

 **Everything** had been changed from the beta days of Sword Art Online.

He should know, he was one of the infamous few.

The beta testers had a minimal advantage, at best, over the game's average player. The combat system revamped and enemy locations randomized, there was little the testers knew that the general populace of the game didn't.

So it made no sense to ostracize such a group, even less so if they actually knew more about the game.

After more arguing, Lance finally managed to get the dwarf and his followers under control.

"Form small teams of players, numbering from 3-6 each team." Lance said.

Finally, they were getting somewhere.

With some scrambling, everybody began finding their group of friends. Hyde was fine with going in alone. Actually, he preferred it.

"Hey buddy! You need to join a group." Lance shouted up at him.

"I prefer working alone."

That seemed to stop everyone in their tracks.

The careless bored sounding voice seemed to bring everything to a stand-still.

Everyone's eyes turned towards him.

Two twin tomahawks were sheathed at his side, face almost entirely obscured.

You could hear a pin drop, the area suddenly silent as a ghost.

"What did we tell you damnit! Just join a random fucking group!"

Apparently the dwarf couldn't read the atmosphere of the room.

* * *

There they stood, at the grand double door entrance to the famed 2nd floor boss. Most of them were nervous, you could see it in their eyes, the way they darted to and fro easily gave them away.

With a great push, the double doors were opened by two armor clad tanks.

Bones were scattered everywhere in the massive room. All around the 4 giant green pillars.

Their party numbered around 30-40 players.

Light shown down to the center of the room. As the party advanced, the ground started shaking.

A massive, skeletal dragon let out an ear piercing shriek. It flew straight over the party and flames descended upon them from the skies.

Hyde quickly rolled behind one of the pillars.

The boss's health bar lay at the bottom of his hud, next to it's title

Ancient Drake

After the initial attack, the players split into their groups, tanks up front, followed by a varying number of mages and swordsmen, with archers in the back.

The Drake let out a roar of defiance as it landed in the center of the room.

He knew exactly what he needed to do, be constantly aware of his surroundings and just worry about himself, in this world it was everyone for themselves.

So he analyzed the scene.

A few players had been caught in the initial attack, but they were at the back of each group healing up.

The boss had a red crystal displayed upon its forehead, razor sharp bones all across its body, and a green crystal on the tip of its swinging tail.

The players attacked the beast, but nobody either had the mind, or the skill to hit the crystals.

The damage dealt to the bone frame of the beast only carved out small chunks in the boss's health pool and the wearing on of time only served to decrease moral.

'At this rate they'll run out of healing items before the end of the first phase and port out'

Hyde was disappointed, this is what the best of the 50,000 players trapped in Aincrad had to offer? Pathetic.

"Archers! Focus your fire on the crystals!" Lance commanded from his vantage point.

When the archer's arrows got close to the crystals, a wall of bone would sprout up in front of them, effectively protecting the crystal.

Hyde reached down into a pouch strapped to his thigh, taking out a single throwing knife, he took aim.

Hyde knew he wasn't a ranged expert, he had already begun specializing himself in close combat with the use of his axes. But even then, he always had throwing knifes and razor wire with him.

The great beast began billowing out fire once again, it's head lowered to the ground, sweeping across the room.

'There!'

It was within range.

Hyde took aim...

"MOVE!"

He paid the voice no mind.

"Knife skill: Eagle Eye!"

The sharp projectile struck true, the bone walls too slow to deny it entry, and with a great roar, a chunk of its health depleted.

The jewel cracked.

Hyde was knocked to the floor by someone as the boss reared up in pain.

"ARE YOU SUICIDAL?!"

His entire arm was in excruciating pain, easily 3rd degree burns.

"I'm alive, aren't I?" Hyde ground out through clenched teeth.

He launched both arms around the stranger's smaller form and rolled.

A large claw descended, crushing the ground where they had previously been.

Wasting no more time, Hyde popped up off the ground in time to hold off the great beast's clawed hand.

He was steadily being pushed back, twin tomahawks crossed.

When the other claw came rushing at his exposed side, Hyde was bodily thrown against a pillar.

But it had been enough, he soon saw, the stranger had gotten out of the way.

As some of the adrenaline wore off, his blackened right arm hit him full force.

'Great, now I'm going to have to buy new armor after this'

With his health dipping into the red zone, he downed several red potions.

The tanks had somehow survived thus far without any losses, but it was just a matter of time until one of the standby tanks switches places too slowly or gets caught off guard.

With the decrease in the boss's health pool, came an increase in the frequency of attacks.

The boss's claw swiped at a group of tanks, following it up with a left handed swipe, and a crushing fist the tanks were forced to dodge.

But the discovery of these attack patterns had come at a cost, a warrior who ventured too close to the tanks had been impaled by one of the sharp fingers and tossed like a rag dole into a different group of tanks, dead on impact.

Hyde picked himself out of the ruins, tossing his bottle to the ground.

With a bored expression hyde looked into the scene. Two arrows had been fired at the exact time from opposite ends of the battlefield.

'Maybe there's hope for them yet'

One of the arrows was deflected, but the bone wall couldn't catch the 2nd.

With a loud shatter, the crystal on the beast's forehead dissipated in a shower of red.

Hyde picked up a clacking sound directly behind him.

In one smooth motion, Hyde turned and blocked the first strike aimed for his head, parrying the second, and destroyed the skeleton with a hasty reposte while it was on the ground.

That's when he saw them. Skeletons emerging from the walls, intent on striking down the archers in the back of every group.

The war cries and sound of battle echoing throughout the chamber masked the approach of the skeleton army.

The 2nd floor boss was going to make them fight a 2 front battle.

Hyde quickly popped a green bottle out, downing it in one swig, ready to follow through with his plan.

'I won't have much time, but it should be enough'

He unsheathed his axes and began sprinting around the outer edges of the room.

Running between the line of fast advancing skeletons and the ones just emerging from the walls, Hyde clipped every individual skeleton he could with his axes, sliding under sword thrusts and dodging spear throws; he almost made a full circle around the arena when the speed boost wore off.

'That'll have to do'

Turning on his heels, Hyde faced the incoming horde that he had just agroed.

With the fall of the red crystal came the fall of the boss's first health bar.

The next course of action seemed obvious, destroy the tail crystal and go home heros.

"Mages! Archers! Focus fire on the green crystal on its ta-!"

"AAAAGHHHH"

A player right beside Lance fell and shattered into a million pieces, pierced through the heart by a clacking skeleton.

Lance quickly pivoted and knocked the skeleton's sword to the ground, following up with the butt of his spear, he sent its skull flying.

After the skeleton collapsed he flipped his menu open and brought out a large horn.

"BACKUP TANKS! COVER THE RANGERS!"

With that loud proclamation and a few stab wounds, the raid group adjusted enough to pick off the remaining skeletons.

Hyde searched for a gap between the skeletons that surrounded him.

'There's no way out'

Teeth barred and axes at the ready, Hyde ground his teeth together as an axe descended on his back.

A quick sidestep and swing later, the skeleton was gone.

A small smile managed to make its way across his face.

 _Now's when the real fight begins_

* * *

 _ _I'll give a donut to whoever can point out the game series I jacked the last line of this chapter from :))))__


	3. RIP Big Boss Boi

"HURRAH!"

Cries of victory echoed through the chamber, the mighty dragon fell accompanied by the sound of shattering pixels.

Just as the last of the cheers died out, a different sound began permeating the battlefield.

* * *

The sound of battle range loud in his ears. But his mind was calm and calculated. He operated on instinct and practiced precision alone. Equipped with his twin tomahawks, Hyde sidestepped and vaulted over the rushing skeleton, spring boarding off its back.

He narrowly avoided an arrow.

'Would have pierced my hand'

He pivoted and rushed the archer.

A quick slash, leg sweep and skull shattering curb stomp saw the archer in pixels.

After a moment, Hyde was left alone.

That's when he finally realized that the entire raid party had eyes on him; they had managed to finish the dragon off. He had let himself fall into the same trap they had, tunnel vision in the heat of battle.

How ironic

He sheathed his weapons and went along salvaging what thrown knives and hastily placed traps he could.

* * *

A treasure chest fell in place of the massive dragon in the middle of all the adventurers. The chest scattered the millions of pixels that took the dragon's place in an almost angelic display, within this pit of death and tribulation. Thrown up into the air, a shower of hope to those who looked on.

The chest swung open and three images appeared above it in the following order:

The first was of the leading tank that held the formation together around him.

He began instructing some of the lower leveled tanks in what to do before the boss raid began. And unlike the rest of the tanks, he refused to switch out during the boss fight for a reprieve.

Under his image were the words, "MOST DAMAGE ABSORBED" and above, his name:

Gruto

Next up was a certain individual with the starting white cotton shirt, shaggy blonde hair, and bored blue eyes. His expression gave away nothing. Not a single emotion was present on his face or even present in the body language of his upper shoulders that were displayed. Utter neutrality.

Not a single person in the raid group recognized the guy.

The words "MOST DAMAGE GIVEN" faded into view below his image. Everyone's eyes were drawn with curiosity towards the top of the image

 _ **Hyde**_

"WHAT?!"

Hyde had no idea what he was doing during the battle because he never caught sight of him, but in times of peace the grouchy little dwarf was easy to pick out.

Mr. Dwarf separated himself from the crowd.

"You mean to tell me one of those dirty beta testers has been here the entire time!?"

In the days following the fall of the first floor's boss, the infamous name of Hyde became almost synonymous with beta tester. Individuals like the scrutinizing fellow above preached to the masses, demeaning beta testers as cheaters and claimed they wouldn't actually die if killed in-game.

While these allegations held no actual evidence to back them up, some of the players trapped in Aincrad decided to blindly believe them. Their pent up frustration and anger at the madman that trapped them in this game couldn't be wreaked upon Kayaba right now, so it found other ways to vent.

How else would a single man have taken down such an incredible monster?

He must be cheating

The few beta testers Hyde knew of in the game right now had gone into hiding, afraid for their lives.

Now they had to worry about the monsters of this world, and their fellow players.

Hyde just looked onto the scene with mild disgust.

After spewing more hatred fueled sentiments, the little man with the big axe began trying to goad the alleged beta tester forward.

"Show yourself you coward! What are you so afraid of, you cheat!?"

This was getting old rather quickly and Hyde was almost ready to just exit the chamber when Lance stepped forward, "Forqa, that is enough."

"This should be a time of celebration and, later, mourning for our dead, not one of ridicule and infighting."

While a majority of the raid group was gathered around the chest, there were a couple parties gathered tightly together.

These were the ones that weren't so lucky. They had lost a friend and a comrade in arms.

As they deteriorated into the aether, the groups mourned in the only way they knew how.

They brought one another together in a group embrace, one person smaller, the group had lost some of its warmth.

The red head known as Forqa stepped back into line with some grumbling.

Finally, the third photo appeared, a question mark for photo, title, and name.

Hyde saw a notification pop up on his display, it gave a grid of everyone in the raid party, photo and name below.

The three who had lost their lives crossed out in red.

Above the grid the words "The best of you" were displayed.

They were voting on who else was to be recognized by the game.

There were murmurs among the raid group and, eventually, Lance's name and photo appeared in place of the question marks with the title "The best of you."

"You three! Step forward and claim your prize!"

A purple cloaked wizard appeared levitating above the chosen individual's photos.

Hyde recognized that voice. Hell, anybody trapped in this place should.

The atmosphere suddenly felt much more oppressive, like there was some sort of weightiness to the air that wasn't there before.

Akihiko Kayaba demanded their presence.

The entrapped community's dubbed "madman" was right there in front of them.

Looking as giddy and cheerful as a child on Christmas morning.

For the longest time nobody moved, frozen in place. Gruto and Lance looked at one another and seemed to hold a private conversation with just their eyes before finally separating themselves from the crowd. Hyde made his way through the group from the back, people eventually making way for him.

Three items materialized in front of them. A massive bone greatshield, a six foot tall greatsword, again comprised of bone, and finally a bone-white rallying flag.

Each warrior took their

'gift. reward possibly.'

and put them in their inventories for further inspection.

'Giving us weapons, an edge. Those who seek to destroy him.'

Hyde had to admit, his small capacity for curiosity had peaked.

Kayaba's voice rang out again

"I'm impressed with each one of you and expect great things! I better see you all on the final floor!" With that simple proclamation and a swirl of purple smoke, Kayaba was gone.

The one who had trapped them all here for the past two or so months of their lives just appeared out of thin air, congratulated them on beating the floor boss, and then disappeared with a few parting gifts.

You could hear a pin drop it was so quiet.

Then someone coughed and all hell broke loose.

In the following panic, some rushed to the spot Kayaba had disappeared from where purple smoke was still dissipating to see if there was any indication at all as to where he had gone.

Others took off for the door at the top of the staircase that had appeared to lead them to the second floor.

And others just stood there, still in shock or not knowing what to do.

Hyde slipped away in the stampede of players headed for the door, not wanting to waste his time listening to Forqa spout off about beta testers for the third time today.

Forqa didn't have confirmation that he was a beta tester, but now he had a name and a face to put to that name to represent the group.

'What the fuck am I going to do with this giant fucking cleaver?!' Hyde thought, bored blue eyes on the bad of the blonde haired player he was trailing in the herd.

Maybe Kayaba wasn't trying to help them after all.

* * *

Congratz on gizturd for the donut, will be mailing shortly.

Hope you like choccy donuts cuz that's what you're getting.


	4. Run or Die

After they ascended the stairs once again, there was desert as far as the eye could see.

They had been knocked over by a gust that had come from what Hyde could only describe as a sandstorm.

Rolling dunes, cacti and multiple stone paths, all leading in different directions met the adventurers.

The 2nd floor had been conquered and those who dared to brave the frontlines forged onward to take on a whole new level of Kayaba's creation.

* * *

Along the rivers he followed, Hyde cut down any creature that dared challenge him in his search for a town.

He was out of his element and he knew it.

Thriving in the forests of the first two levels, Hyde wasn't used to being so vulnerable to ranged attacks such as the poison some of the scorpions fired out of their tails.

The creatures also seemed to have gotten smarter, using their reach and ranged capabilities to try and stay away from his twin tomahawks and keep at a distance.

Which just made him less efficient

He moved like a wrath through the night.

Almost complete darkness.

He _needed_ to find a village.

Carrying capacity maxed out, pushing the limits of his agility skill, Hyde strode on.

Hyde came across another of the stone paths

Then, he caught sight of a great sand colored rock formation in the distance.

The rock formation was made of sandstone and had many long running cracks and crevices.

'perfect'

He stuck his body between a set of sandstone walls and started to shimmy down.

Judging this a safe distance, Hyde used some wire to secure the edges and jammed a trap spike into each wall to set up his hammock in-between two nearly vertical cliff faces.

A throwing knife sunk into the wall, Hyde had thrown it so hard.

'Missed'

Dropping down into a roll, he went to go take out his tag-along.

Ever since leaving the boss floor someone has had eyes on him.

He didn't understand why they didn't strike when he was vulnerable.

Both hands preoccupied, a swift projectile could've given his opponent the upper-hand, had he let it hit him while he set up his camping spot.

Sliding along the shadows the stars now cast on the rock formations

Hyde hunts in the dark

He was now back in his element, in a way, he supposed.

 **Clang!**

His tail wasn't fast enough in slipping behind the next corner and an axe found her sword.

He left her no reprieve, striking with speed as to not allow her to retreat.

This wasn't a game anymore. He had to end this quickly in-case her party was too close behind.

Continuing his onslaught, the female was pushed back until Hyde judged good enough.

He slung two traps out as he leapt back.

"Wait!….Please….Stop..."

Hyde took stock of her appearance, she panted heavily and her only reasonable avenue of escape was now through him.

She was cornered by steep cliffs behind her, and those traps he activated would buy him more than enough time to finish her if she chose to brave the slowing magic contained within them.

He obviously outmatched her with no visible exertion coming from him, so he spoke.

"Where is your party. Tell me now or you die"

She visibly composed herself and placed her sword and dagger

'Easily the dps in the party'

onto the ground in a slow manner as to not provoke a reaction.

"I came here alone sir."

He deadpanned. This was a waste of his time.

'But maybe it didn't have to be'

He materialized the giant bone cleaver he got from the raid, dissipating a tomahawk.

Giving the giant weapon a couple swings, remaining tomahawk in his off-hand, his bored eyes didn't seem so dead for an instant.

Seeing this, the hooded female in question picked up her weapons and prepared as best she could.

Hyde had never been a connoisseur of bulky weapons, but this one had far too good of stats to ignore.

He rushed her with an overhead swing, but she rolled and struck with her sword.

Falling back on her ass, she sat stunned as she gasped.

He parried her quick sport strike.

With something akin to a dagger no less.

The timing that took was incomprehensible, she hadn't thought it possible.

"Answer me, or you will die."

In the parry, her sword had been launched into the cliff face, far above.

She panicked

"Please, don't kill me!"

"I saw you fight in the raid! I was there!"

He looked at her.

"How else would you have followed me this far? Of course you were in the raid you utter bafoon"

He had wasted enough time here.

Hefting his sword, she wouldn't be able to dodge this one…

"I SAVED YOUR LIFE"

...He paused...

"Run"

Hyde threw his sword into storage with the expertise of one well versed in rapid menu swapping.

Lifting the girl from the ground, he wasted no time in throwing her bodily towards her sword.

She grabbed onto her weapon and rode it the rest of the way down the cliff face.

Hyde took off at a dead sprint in the opposite way he had come from, and the girl followed suit.

The female attempted to question Hyde, but was met with a single finger pressed to his lips.

She fell silent and heard the sound of wind.

Finding nothing, she shouted after him again and at this point he just pointed behind them.

A massive sandstorm had begun to form, and it spanned the entire horizon.

Now she understood why they were running.

Hyde sat at the base of fire he built.

It was almost pitch black out when they had arrived.

He reflected on the days events and what had led to him associate with the sleeping creature on the other side of the fire.

She had passed out just as soon as they made camp, most likely from exhaustion.

He had managed to pack up his camping gear in the time it took the girl to slide down the cliff face, which most likely resulted in their successful escaping of the sandstorm.

If they hadn't left when they did, it's very possible they wouldn't have made it to this monster occupied hut in-time to clear it out before the sandstorm caught up.

It turns out the girl was traveling solo after all, that or her time had already been wiped out by the sandstorm.

He would have loved to see any human being who could have stood up to those chaotic winds, for he would have stolen their gear right then and there.

So he had decided to let her live.

Standing, he decided.

Sleep would not grace his tormented mind on this night.

So he ventured out from the hut to see what horrors the dead of night could gift him.


End file.
